Internships provide space for both undergraduate and graduate students to apply theory to practice through real-world experiences to prepare individuals for a world of work. In this article, the authors share how this preparation occurs during the Shippensburg University's Department of Counselor Education's rigorous internship experience and…

School counseling graduate programs can fall short of preparing students with authentic and systems-focused skills in classroom instruction. We offer three problem-based learning assignments for counselor educators to help school counselors-in-training develop pedagogical skills and deliver lessons that address authentic problems facing students…

Contract grading provides graduate-level students with greater control and autonomy within the learning process. The contract grading approach requires students to take greater responsibility for achieving course learning outcomes as well as allowing learners to adjust the style and focus of assignments to meet their own unique needs and desires.…

Research suggests that most college and beginning graduate students lack the cognitive complexity required to engage in effective practical and ethical reasoning. Studies on cognitive development support the view that how people approach complex problems varies significantly depending on the underlying epistemic assumptions they use to guide their…

There have been longstanding debates about Master of Social Work (MSW) Advanced Standing programs. Many schools of social work offer Advanced Standing status to students with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) that allows students to enter directly into a concentrated and specialized second year of the MSW program. There are arguments that BSW…

Recent and rapid technological advances have given rise to an explosive growth of data, along with low-cost solutions for accessing, collecting, managing, and analyzing data. Despite the advances in technology and the availability of data, social work organizations routinely encounter data-related problems that have an impact on their…

This paper describes how training school and clinical psychology graduate students in early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) has the potential to fill gaps in the ECMHC workforce, enhance the capacity of early care and education (ECE) providers to effectively support the mental health needs of children and families, and help ECE…

We are facing a critical nationwide shortage of mental health professionals in our schools, which directly impacts the well-being and success of our students. Through our innovative partnership, funded by the Department of Education, our program has the potential to alleviate this shortage by providing a pipeline to a committed pool of novice…

Social workers are charged to work with vulnerable populations and often encounter those experiencing homelessness. Despite this fact, social workers do not typically learn about homelessness in degree programs even though the topic aligns with the educational competencies set forth by the Council on Social Work Education. This teaching note…

Many social workers are exposed to trauma directly and indirectly through their academic coursework and practice settings. Research shows that social workers who practice self-care early in their careers are better able and more likely to effectively manage these experiences. In the long term, self-care can reduce staff turnover rates and burnout,…

The statistics requirement in social work curricula can be seen by students as a detour from the substance of social work. In this note, I describe my experience teaching part-time master's students that statistical thinking is social work: it is an application of the social work code of ethics and a critical tool in practice for making pragmatic…

The Policy Field Unit (PFU) is an independently designed practicum placement for School of Social Work (SSW) students at a large, urban Midwestern university. The placement provides students an opportunity to engage with the policy process as macro social work practitioners in a variety of settings. Increasing social work students' efficacy in…

The COVID-19 global pandemic has shaken the status quo including the way university counseling and assessment centers provide training to graduate students and psychological services to the community. The pandemic brought high levels of uncertainty and contradictory telehealth guidelines across organizations. Guidelines related to telehealth…

This paper discusses the utilization of a cultural humility model to educate social work students in understanding the importance of diversity, power, privilege, oppression, marginalization and social and economic justice in an increasingly diverse society. Social work programs are required to teach students to effectively engage a diversity of…

The National Association of School Psychologists' Professional Standards delineate 10 domains of professional practice that are infused into graduate preparation, credentialing recommendations, and service delivery. School psychology graduate students need exposure to, and practice with, these domains. A university-based graduate class in…